Letters to the Editor: Sunday, February 3, 2013

Don’t look down on the homeless; don’t look away… The criminals will keep their guns; so should we… A special evening! A special thank you!

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The Daily Telegram - Adrian, MI

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Posted Feb. 3, 2013 at 9:00 AM

Posted Feb. 3, 2013 at 9:00 AM

Don’t look down on the homeless; don’t look away

To the editor,

I don’t know when it became “wrong” to show kindness to someone less fortunate than you, but if this is the trend in our community, it is a sad, sad, time.

I’d like to share with you an event on a frigid Friday morning. I, like many others, look forward to the end of the work week, and occasionally stop by a local restaurant to enjoy breakfast. When I walked in on this day, there was a homeless man sitting alone in a booth. He remarked how cold it was outside, and we began a conversation.

During the five-minute exchange, I realized that customers walking by made extreme effort to avoid eye contact. Those that did look at us, did not offer smiles, rather looks of disgust. I was shocked and a little bit sickened by the looks I was being given by these customers and even management for taking the time to talk to this man and make sure that he had something hot to eat that day.

I’m sure we’ve all heard the saying about judging someone before walking in their shoes, so I won’t offer a lecture. However, I implore you, don’t pretend that these individuals are invisible, or a “stain” on our society. After all, if we can’t be compassionate towards others in the dead of winter, when can we?

Take away guns and what happens? Peace? No! Criminals will NOT give up guns. For the sake of argument, lets say they DO give them up. Then what? Knifings, beatings, strangulation, etc. all RISE. A tool is a tool. A PERSON controls the tool.

In Switzerland EVERY Swiss male is required to serve in the militia and is required to keep a gun at home! They have a VERY LOW gun death rate. I guess Harvard didn’t look up that information.

Daniel Spaulding

Adrian

A special evening! A special thank you!

To the editor,

The Adrian Area Chamber of Commerce wishes to thank everyone who attended the 2013 annual dinner and awards presentation. Special thanks to Jim Cottington, Londa Pickles, Sister Peg Albert, Chris Miller, Kristin Clark, Barbara Decker and Rick Aguirre of The Centre as well as The Centre staff for an outstanding job!

A highlight of the evening was a video presentation of Gary’s friends and associates speaking to his character, faith and servant leadership. We thank Ken Kintner, Video Productions of Lenawee for his work on this project. The video of the entire evening will be on the Chamber website for all to enjoy. Thank you to those who participated in the video: David B. Munson, Randy Faust, Joe Ann Steele, Tim Robinson, Bill and Jessica Chesser; Fred Smith and Doug Gray.